PORT-OF-SPAIN ú Trinidad and Tobago’s controversial leader of the Jamaat-al-Muslimeen, Abu Bakr, has been questioned by the police in connection with investigations into the murder of Jillia Browne, a 32-year old mother of two and wounding of two men.

Bakr, who led an abortive coup in 1990 against the goverment of then Prime Minister ANR Robinson, had his lawyer, Ian Brooks, with him when he turned up at the Criminal Investigation Department on Thursday night and subsequently held in custody..

He had earlier been told by homicide detectives that he was wanted for questioning in connection with the shooting death of Browne on June 4 this year in a drive-by shooting incident in the compound of the Movie Towne complex in Mucarapo, the community in which Bakr’s Jamaat has its headquarters.

The former cop turned social activist and leader of the Black Muslim sect, was due to appear before a magistrate’s court in Port-of-Spain yesterday, on the basis of advice sought by the police from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, according to a report in the ‘Trinidad Guardian’.

The police had requested that he cooperates with their investigations following some information they received from a man who said he was now willing to “testify” about the circumstances of the drive-by shooting death of Browne and the wounding of two men in her company at Movie TowneúAbdul Ghani and Salim Rasheed.

Ghani is the common law husband of the murdered woman and Rasheed had been expelled from the Jamaat just three weeks prior to the shooting tragedy.